We Are Interviewing James Galanos. This Is for the FIT Archives. I'd Like

James Galanos

AOH47_01

GREEN: [00:00] We are interviewing James Galanos. This

is for the FIT archives. I’d like the interview by

commenting that there is no question about your

extraordinary talent and my own sense of you as a

brilliant, major designer. One of the questions of

course that always operates for anybody who is doing

research on this field is what is the magic? How does

it happen? Where does it come from? Who are you?

What early influences? Why? Why you? I have a very

simple system, which is that I maintain that good

designer are very much like good buildings, they last.

And to me you are the Acropolis so let’s take it from

there. Can you start just with the autobiographical

things? Mommy, daddy, you know the whole thing.

GALANOS: Well, what can I say? Start from there. [01:00]

The seed must have been very very young because my

beginning was tender age of, at least, ten. And the

strange thing is that I pursued fashion even as a

young child, not knowing anything about fashion but my

tendency went towards clothing rather than just art.

GREEN: It was [attending?] for women or for men or for

both?

GALANOS: For women.

GREEN: For women.

GALANOS: And my father was an artist although he never

fulfilled himself totally so I assume that’s where I

got the seed.

GREEN: Who were your parents?

GALANOS: My father -- both my father and mother were born

in Greece, in Macedonia, and came over during the

early part of the century, I believe around ’16 or ’17

[02:00] and being part of that wave of immigrants that

came over trying to find a better life and so forth.

And the first settled in New York and eventually

settled in Philadelphia and ended up in a small town

in Southern Jersey. So my background is not one of

glamour as far as locale. I grew up in a very very

small town, which really had no art per se.

GREEN: What was the town economics like?

GALANOS: Middle class. Comfortable. My father had a

restaurant so during the depression years -- I

remember those fairly well -- we had everything, a lot

of people didn’t have anything.

GREEN: You ate anyway.

GALANOS: We certainly did. But my father was a very good

provider and he was totally [03:00] devoted to his

children, I have three sisters and myself. And he

encouraged me --

GREEN: Where were you in the constellation of the

siblings? Were you the youngest? The oldest?

GALANOS: I am the third.

GREEN: So there were two girls before you?

GALANOS: Two older sisters, myself and then my baby

sister. So we are about a year apart. And that’s it

as far as background goes.

GREEN: Because you were surrounded by a lot of women in

your life -- in that early period -- was that part of

it do you think?

GALANOS: No, I don’t think so. Not at all. It’s just

that I was very much -- even as a child -- a loner. I

stayed by myself a lot. I used to sketch constantly,

ever since I was able to handle a pencil and I worked

my father’s restaurant and while I was working behind

the counter or [04:00] as a cashier, I would always be

sketching. And it always had to do with clothes; I

was just fascinated with clothes.

GREEN: Is there any early memory of a stimulus in terms

of glamorous clothes: a movie star, a theatre star, a

magazine layout?

GALANOS: Well not really except of course I did like going

to the movies and even as a very young child I had a

tendency of going towards very sophisticated movies

that were probably way beyond what I comprehended at

the time. Nevertheless, I was drawn to those glamour

gals of the MGM [jury?] like Garbo and [Emory Sheer?]

and things like that.

GREEN: When were you born, James?

GALANOS: I’m 61 years old. I was born 1924.

GREEN: Well then you were just, like what, ten years old

when that was all happening?

GALANOS: So I remember going to the -- instead of going to

the cowboy films I would always go and see those other

kinds of films that, you know, the older folk would go

to. [05:00] And they just fascinated me.

GREEN: Were you conscious of the clothes at that time?

GALANOS: Oh very much so.

GREEN: And Adrian must have been somebody to [choose

respect to?]

GALANOS: Oh yeah, very very much so. Even as a child --

even I would do shopping with my mother and I would

really select her clothes. And I would say, “Mother,

nope, that’s not good enough.” And if she said, “Oh,

well I can’t afford one.” I would say, “Let’s not buy

that, let’s wait and get something...until we can.”

And my mother would listen to me and also with my

sisters eventually. And I was very very demanding as

far as what I thought they should wear.

GREEN: And they accepted --

GALANOS: I had better taste than they did. I really did.

GREEN: Oh I’m sure that’s probably true.

GALANOS: And I must say they followed suite. You know, it

was really a question of economics. If they couldn’t

afford it, they couldn’t afford it. But I really had

a [06:00] feeling of clothes; colors, shade, and I

wanted them always to be elegant and well dressed and

so forth. I never went towards jazz or just trendy

things even. Whatever, they weren’t (inaudible) at

the time.

GREEN: Go back to the movies just for a moment. Right

off the top off your head suggest some people you

thought had the elegance that you eventually wanted to

project for your family and certainly for your

clients?

GALANOS: Well I never related the two together. I mean

the one thing, after all that’s a dream world and the

other is reality. I never really went in that

direction, taking a role model. Later on as far as I

thought had style -- of course I became a very close

friend of Rosalind Russell in her later years. And of

course Roz was my great drama. [07:00] She could be

terribly elegant or very flamboyant. Sometimes got a

little bit carried away but basically she had a lot of

style. She could put on anything and make it look

good. And I learned a lot through her when I came to

Hollywood. Although she really let me have complete

say. And we became very very close I must say.

GREEN: I know a great deal about that period, certainly

and particularly in relationship to fashion because I

have done endless work on it. And it seems to me that

Travis Banton and the clothes that he did for Carole

Lombard and that molding of that image -- because the

early Lombard was --

GALANOS: They were fabulous, really fabulous. And the

things that he did for Dietrich, like Desire and

Angel, those -- to be honest with you, the paisley

pleated gown [08:00] that she wore in Angel was

duplicated by Yves St. Laurent just a couple of years

ago, almost verbatim. So he had great influence. I

mean a lot of the French designers, including us over

here, really have taken those people and have used

them as inspiration. And some, let’s put it this way,

have copied them verbatim. But they were strong, they

were good. You had Charlie [Ben?], you had Adrian,

and Arlene in the later days was fantastic in what she

did. Unfortunately a lot of these California people

are not given due credit. When you see some of their

really good things, it puts all of the New York people

to shame.

GREEN: Well certainly we -- you said something

interesting before which we all recognize that motion

pictures -- I’ve always said about them that they

dealt with the world of the extraordinary. And

television dealt with the world of the ordinary.

[09:00] And the reality is however, when you look back

on the clothes. Leave out the things that are

unrealistic in terms of real lifestyle. But I go back

to Lombard because I remember the early -- very early

-- appearances of her and she was nothing more than

kind of a sexpot. And when Banton took her over, he

molded her. He taught her to have a stand. He taught

her the simplest things that he had learned from Madam

Francis in New York. You know, that that kind of

elegance. And I see that in you year after year after

year where one gets the feeling that the woman who

selects a gown (inaudible) and stays with it and

allows herself to let that dress support the image

that she wishes to project -- the same thing happens.

You see -- when I associate you with elegance it’s

because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen people with new money

[10:00] and not the greatest taste be directed by you

and suddenly you are into this extraordinary person

making an entrance to a restaurant or a room because

she has learned to do it.

GALANOS: It’s true, we have, of course, I don’t know all

of my (inaudible) but I have gotten involved with a

lot of them because I do travel throughout the country

and we have developed certain women who before had a

different image and weren’t buying so called couture

clothes. We are ready to wear but we call ready to

wear couture. And because they have relied on what I

do for them, they have developed -- as you say -- a

style and it is part of them today. Now I can give

you examples of certain women in Texas, Dallas,

[11:00] where there is a lot stylish women and a lot

of, also, rich women who have no style. And some have

developed beautifully and are impeccable and can go

anywhere and look as good as the next person in the

world’s centers and that makes you feel very good.

GREEN: Oh I am sure it does. Going back again, I love

what you said about the fact, honestly, that your

taste was superior to your mother and your sisters.

Now you use the word style and women’s style. Can you

define for me, as you define it for yourself, the

difference between taste and style?

GALANOS: Well of course style is something that one

develops. It’s not only just the clothes, its

everything, you know, the look, the stance, how one

reacts. [12:00] It’s all pulling together. Fashion

of course is pulling yourself together with objects of

clothing or whatever. Taste varies. And taste

changes because what we make consider very good taste

today in the next period one doesn’t see it the same

way. Or you look at it in another light so it becomes

tasteful relative to what is going on in that

particular moment. So it is hard to really define

taste in every particular moment. But there are rule

and as I think someone else has said, and I say too,

rules are to be broken. But it takes a lot of doing

and a lot of know how to break those rules or make you

what you are doing stand up if you are going to fight

what the accepted norm is. [13:00]

GREEN: Which is safer?

GALANOS: Well, of course, it is always safer to follow the

rule but that can be a little boring. And I think

this is what has happened with fashion in the past

decade or two decades at this point. There has been a

wild experimentation of looks and of course a lot of

it came from the young kids who we all followed. But

I must be very honest, I love watching what young

people do on the streets. I don’t mean the designers

because the designers are following those individual

persons because somewhere, I don’t know where they

have gotten this method of putting themselves

together; some of them are characters, naturally. But

there is something there with a lot of flair and there

is a lot of intereSt. And that is what has kept me,

frankly, in tune with the time. Because remember I am

establishment. I have been in business for 35 years

now and we’ve stayed on top and have stayed on top

[14:00] and trends just get better and better. You’ve

got to go with the times but never forget what you

stand for. And this is the one secret of my

particular success. We still do the elegant. We

still do all of that -- I’ve never given up. Whereas,

as you know, on Seventh Avenue there was such a

confusion during the period during the hippies and god

knows what, so many people went out of business. They

weren’t able to cope with the new looks and so they

fell away and a lot of new people came in and of

course the youth took over.

GREEN: I’d be interested in your reaction to this. You

see I believe that style really -- as you describe it

-- comes from these kids. It’s an individual process

and it’s nothing to do with anything that’s happened

before and when you say where it came from or where --

you are [15:00] absolutely right. It comes out of

emotional need. Need to exhibit, need to call

attention, need to cover flaws, need to do exactly the

opposite. And it can be a political statement; it can

be a social statement. And sometimes they couldn’t

analyze it in a million years. But they have the

ability and sometimes it works. You go out to the

underground movement and see what they are wearing and

if you have an educated eye, you can take a single

thing from them and support it by the very world that

you design for.

GALANOS: But remember there is always the one person who

has that ability to make other people follow. As you

say out of the group of young people there is always

the one person who has it. And then they follow just

like, I guess the prime example being Madonna today,

of what -- there is [16:00] an uproar what she is

doing. Everybody wants to look like Madonna. Well,

she is an individualiSt. [Bec Miller?] was an

individualist, like it or not but anyways she does

something that at that particular time no one else did

and people followed that. Now you can take something

from that. I am not saying that they are great

leaders in what we know as style but there is that

very special something. And they are the ones who

start it and the others follow, they are the weaker

ones and they adapt. So, I mean, it’s very

interesting and how or why one doesn’t know --

obviously there is something, either in the genes or

they have, as you say, an astute eye or they are

clever or they know how to manipulate or put things

together. And this is the same with the designer. I

mean there are some designers that are good and they

are very competent, they do a good job. But they rely

on [17:00] following a lot of other people and they

can take them, they can adapt to [what’s on?]. They

are needed as well as some of the others. But then

there are the really bonifide creators, the ones who

really have the feel and there are very few of them.

There are a few in Europe, in France and they’re a few

in Italy. And there may be --

GREEN: Who do you respect as creative?

GALANOS: Well I have to say, in the overall picture, and

it boils down for one reason. There is no doubt that

Yves St. Laurent is fantastic. I am afraid however

that he is played out and that is sad. He is not

doing what he should be doing but I think he probably

undertook more than he has ever wanted to and I think

probably pressured to do too much. But he has had his

periods, but he has consistently -- what he has is

taste. Whereas a lot of the other designers are

terrific, [18:00] their design ability, they are

innovative. But they lack taste. And I am concerned

with taste. I hope -- at least I am told -- that I

make beautiful clothes that are tasteful and transcend

the period of time. And so if a woman comes in the

store dressed as 25, 35 years old, that says

something. It’s not necessarily that you don’t have

to but it can. I mean we have customers and bringing

13 out clothes that they are still wearing, give or take a modification of something. Of course nothing is what it was. Of course you say, “I’ve been wearing a dress from the mid-’40s.” Of course it’s not going to look like the 1980s. But if the lines were good, I mean today we are wearing pads again so you have to contend with that. Whereas back then they weren’t wearing pads -- in the ’40s they weren’t but let’s say the ’50s or whatever. But basically [19:00] at the dresses world at the time (inaudible) prime example, especially evening clothes that don’t age as much as daytime clothes. I mean you can’t go better than that. They were actually magnificent. And even, well of course, Schiaparelli’s and [Beau] began today. If they were wonderful then, they are wonderful now. You see none of us are doing quite that good I don’t think. But they are wonderful. And I just marvel all the time. I mean you can go back if you want to do research and look and look and look. They were fairly inventive. I dare say I don’t think they are inventive today, the designers, in that sense. What we are doing today is really accessorizing differently. That’s what’s happening. And so that makes things look a little different. As far as

clothing, basically the same, it doesn’t change that

radically as much as one might think so. [20:00] I

mean, you know, you pull in the dress here, you loosen

it there, you drop the waist -- all those are givens.

Like what you do is when you put a pair of tennis with

an evening dress, that gives you a different look, and

that’s what they are doing

GREEN: Sure does.

GALANOS: And I remember just back in the ’60s I copied a

pair of laced men’s evening shoes, I made them in

white satin and lacing. No one had done that at that

point, they really hadn’t. And of course David Evins

did the shoes for me and it was one of his huger

successes. David says I don’t believe it but we are

going to try it. I said I am going to shoe it with

evening clothes -- in fact, that pair right there,

that gal wearing that stripped gown, she has a pair of

white tennis shoes under that gown and the one there -

- Stravinsky did that photograph. Well it caused

quite a sensation. Of course a lot of people didn’t

follow through, [21:00] the young people did. Other

designers took not of it. My -- I am going to say

more elegant ladies of a certain age weren’t going to

go along with that look, they adapted it to something

else. But I mean, these are the little things and

this is what is happening today the way I see it. I

mean you take Armani who I think is fantastic, I like

his -- he has taste. And you see all the other

Italian designers, it’s pretty awful. They have

everything going wrong. They don’t know when to stop.

Now I don’t say many of them are very good. Armani is

the equivalent of an Yves St. Laurent in Italy. He

has taste. I don’t think he is that innovative

frankly. But I’d rather see that than see a lot of

the other stuff that pretends to be what they call

fashion.

GREEN: We also live the same society in which [22:00] a

lot of the press, with very little background and

knowledge, jump on to whatever the moment is. And the

moment usually is the most extensive fashion show, the

most exciting this or the most exciting that or the

fact that someone writes a major piece on them. I

mean I am always totally fascinated to realize that if

you deal with people who have been around for 19 years

-- they are only 19 years old -- much of what they see

is totally new, totally fresh as far as they are

concerned, with little understanding that this

derivative, this is imitative, this is not original,

this has been done before and better done before

frequently.

GALANOS: It’s sad but it’s true, you see. And too many of

[23:00] today’s editors and there are a few very nice

ones, don’t do their homework. They don’t do their

homework. They really aren’t qualified. And it’s --

you know as nuts are great to believe me, I have been

reviewed by the best and the worSt. You know you just

have to accept but there are some that you respect and

others that you don’t and you just have to ignore it.

And I think any decent designer, good designer, feels

the same way. And it’s sad, it really is very sad.

First of all when an editor can’t distinguish between

a chiffon and a wool you know something is wrong and I

have had these kind of things happen to me in years

gone by. But they have no concept of what a fabric is

or no concept of what a bias was. So, you know, if

you don’t know the rules and the tools of the trade,

you shouldn’t be reviewing. It’s the same as an art

critic or a music critic. I mean, how can you go and

listen to [24:00] opera if you don’t know what the

opera is all about or even read music? Or follow the

score? What have you. So this -- it’s a serious

matter as far as I am concerned. Because after all,

listen, you’ve worked very hard and if you are going

to be reviewed you want to be reviewed by someone who

has a knowledge of what is going on. And also a

development of the design from a period of there to

now. And you know you get some new editors today and

they come in and they don’t even know who you are,

there is no excuse for that. They should find out if

they are going to --

GREEN: Well also, I discovered there is a narrow point

of view on the part of many of them because they have

been selected frequently -- whether it’s television or

whatever the media is -- because the assumption is

that it’s the young market that is the market that

everyone keys to and the unfortunate part of it is is

[25:00] that’s less judgment of what is good fashion

and more associative article statement of what is

operating at this moment. By two weeks from now it

can all change because the -- there is -- you see

there is a wonderful anachronism between your level of

design and the culture itself. When you talk about

dresses that have existed for 35 years and someone can

get into them and wear them and that they are timeless

in the same way that a good building is timeless, or a

good interior. And it’s there. There is something

missing that has to be examined and a designer should

not be placed in that position, it seems to me. And

that realistically what the designer does is -- should

be examined and respected based upon the total

knowledge of the field, his audience [26:00] his past,

what he draws from and who his market is.

GALANOS: Exactly. That they don’t do today. They lump

everybody into one category and that’s it. How can

you put -- take me for example -- next to someone who

does [fourth square?] or something else. I mean they

are totally unrelated and also it is that in my market

is, certainly, just simply because of the economics of

our business or my clothes, they are so stratospheric

in price that only a certain group of women can wear

them. Now, those women have got to have a feeling for

what we are doing and got to appreciate what is going

on, and have a feeling for luxury, whether she buys it

for me or it’s custom-made in Paris. It’s a day they

prefer to have it ready to made, ready to wear,

frankly. Because they don’t want to take the time

[27:00] for all the extra fittings etc. But these

people review us should realize where these clothes

are going, what they represent, what lifestyle they

represent.

GREEN: See, that’s a key word as far as I’m concerned,

because the sadness that I find -- when you think

about the great fashion editors and you think about

Carmel Snow and you think about Diana Vreeland and you

think about Mrs. Chase. When you think about Nancy

White, when you think about peoples whose personal

lives were lives that encompassed the country club,

the yacht, the dinner party, the lecture, the

intellectual experience, the travel on many different

levels. They were able to look at a collection and

relate, you see. I find it very disturbing to read

comments about major designers by people who had never

[28:00] been even on the railroad. And a dinner party

as far as they are concerned is McDonalds. Now there

is nothing wrong for clothes for McDonalds or any of

these areas. I am all for that and I do think that

the culture feeds but there is something missing.

GALANOS: No, I was about to say one person comes to my

mind who really knows is Bill Blass because Bill lives

that lifestyle. He lives with those women, he knows

what they want, he knows their homes. And that’s why

he is very successful, because he makes the kind of

clothes that relate --

GREEN: He travels across this country.

GALANOS: He traveled and his clothes relate to these

people. And hopefully we do the same thing. I am not

as social as Mr. Blass but nevertheless I do travel

lot, I have been in these [29:00] spectacular homes,

etc., etc. so people do dress the way we make clothes

for them, they are not just clothes that are made for

the sake of being made and this is very important. A

lot of other types of designers say, “Well who wears

those clothes? Where do they wear them?” First of

all, you know, there are stylish and very chic ladies

who do go to restaurants and do dress up. Not

everyone is a slob. But then there -- although one

would assume it by looking around -- but no, they

really -- I go to Houston, I go to Dallas and I go to

their homes and these women really really dress. I

mean they’ve got the jewels, they wear the beautiful

clothes and that’s -- it’s what they want. That’s

there -- and they’ve got the background for it.

They’ve got the gorgeous homes, they travel and

believe me, they take a wardrobe when they go to

Europe and of course, like anybody else, [30:00] they

also part of the today’s (inaudible). They’ll have

their blue jean too. That’s an accepted classic today

and that’s fine but if they do have a blue jean

they’ll dress it up. They’ll still wear their Cartier

jewelry with it and what have. So, I mean, they’re

contemporary and that’s fine.

GREEN: I think something that is also missed is that

society has changed by virtue of the fact that nobody

wants to be running around the streets with major

jewelry signaling the fact that they could be knocked

off. And it has been my experience that the beautiful

jewels and the beautiful clothes are worn at private

parties -- not even at country clubs anymore. At

party parties. And there is a certain amount of great

gratification to do that. I gave a party myself in

New York last year which three women arrived carrying

little -- I thought they were make-up boxes -- and I

thought, “How odd.” But what they really were as

their jewelry. [31:00] They all disappeared

immediately and came out, you know, with the

extravagant jewels and I respected them for it. You

know it was a way of protecting themselves.

GALANOS: I go to Milan several times a year now and I have

very good -- I have friends and their socially

involved and they invite me to their parties and I

have to tell you behind the doors, you should see the

way those women dress and the jewelry that comes out.

And when they go out in the street they are all

covered up in a simple coat. They are not

ostentatious. When they get out. And they are not

all driving Rolls-Royces. Little tiny car simply

because they are protecting themselves in that respect

but once they are behind closed doors and closed

gates, it all comes out.

GREEN: Tell me about your trips to Europe. Do you cover

the collections?

GALANOS: No no. I go twice a year to buy fabrics for --

[32:00]

END OF AUDIO FILE

AOH47_02

GALANOS: [00:00] It’s enough that I am working with

clothes but I really hate being in the audience. All

those -- at times I’m curious. And I worked in Paris

1947 and ’48 and even -- I was with Robert Piguet and

even then -- I only saw a collection once. I was just

sort of petrified to go down to the show room, I was

allowed to but I didn’t, but I did peak once. And

that was my only time and then it was 20 years later,

I did see -- I met the woman who was the head

[fondues?] at the Yves St. Laurent when he went into

his own business. Yvonne [Pernauts?] I think? I

always mispronounce her last name. And we became good

friends, so she invited me to see a collection so I

went in the afternoon. This was after the initial

premier, just a regular showing in the afternoon.

[01:00] And I am going to say -- I was fascinated.

And it’s totally different when you see it than when

you see just a few [coverage?] of pictures. And so --

and that’s why I say it’s not fair sometimes when you

pick up, say, Woman’s World magazine, you see a few

things and say, “That’s not so great, doesn’t look

good.” When you see that whole total thing you

understand that there is more and for the ones that

really are great there is something there. It’s

(inaudible). And so you able to get a very fine

feeling of what the person is doing. That’s the only

time I have ever seen a fashion show.

GREEN: Did you know Chanel?

GALANOS: No, I never -- I really don’t know too many

designers. I never have been really very close and

running around with [powerful?] group of people. I’ve

met Mr. Givenchy who I think is terrific, a very

charming [02:00] and of course I knew Mark [Bollan?].

I worked with him although we never spoke with each

other at that time. But now when he sees me he

acknowledges me. So I think he sometimes reads about

us. But I’ve never met Yves St. Laurent. I’ve shook

his hand but I don’t think he would remember. He was

here in Beverly Hills for some -- I forget what --

function and I was in the receiving line and we shook

hands and that was about all. But --

GREEN: I would like -- have you been influenced by

Chanel at all?

GALANOS: No. Look, who knows. Maybe somewhere along the

line -- I’m sure, you are influenced by everything and

everybody, one way or another. But not per se.

Chanel has never been really my great inspiration. I

love what she [03:00] does. But there are others I

prefer.

GREEN: Who?

GALANOS: Well of course, in its heyday [Balenciaga?]

number one. To me that’s great -- great tailor. I

mean actually he started a tailor more than a

designer. But then he did create silhouettes.

GREEN: Yeah, it’s interesting that you -- you made a

comment before that was actually very perceptive.

That they were designers who could not cope with the

changing society and who, in Seventh Avenue, just

disappeared and companies went out of business. In a

funny sort of way -- Balenciaga who designed for a

special world.

GALANOS: He wouldn’t be able to do it today. I think he

would be lost. And I think he left his stuff at the

right moment. Well maybe -- he made a statement I

believe. He didn’t like the vulgarity of what was

going on and rightly so. Because what he did was just

the ultimate in [04:00] refinement and beauty. There

is no doubt about it as far as cut and knowledge of

tailoring and --

GREEN: And invention.

GALANOS: There was no one.

GREEN: And he was wonderfully inventive.

GALANOS: And he did himself. Dior was simply a sketcher

and he had great people who executed his ideas. But

there is a big difference because here is a man who

(inaudible) sews. Now I know the technique of sewing

but I don’t sew. I mean I can, I do when I was young

but I don’t have time anymore to do that sort of

thing. But I do understand the fabric, I do make -- I

used to make all of my own muslins. And then I just

couldn’t because I ended up being the business end of

it all so I am a one-man -- still a one-man operation.

So, it’s difficult. So I have two [05:00] workmen now

and they just carry on my sketches but I do all the

fittings with them.

GREEN: Do you have specific lady clients that will only

deal with you?

GALANOS: A few. I try to stay out of that area frankly.

I like to be there. When we do the road tours, you

know we are invited by the stores, I am there to put

my input. Give advice if they want it. And there are

some women that really want the advice, others simply

don’t. They only want the designer around. And I

respect that and I stay out of their way.

GREEN: Did you ever know Charlie James?

GALANOS: Not in a terribly close way but I got to know him

around the outside of his circle. And [06:00] I was

one of the few people that he liked. He used to write

me letters, 20-page letters.

GREEN: You’re lucky he didn’t sue you.

GALANOS: No because I did something once for him and he

was--

JANE: Goodnight.

GALANOS: Goodnight Jane. He was very admiring of it and

also with respect to the way I worked, he told me.

And whenever he would see me in New York on the street

he would corner me and I would be there for two hours

standing there not knowing how to get away. I must

say he was wonderful but I’ll tell you the truth, I

never understood what he said half the time. He was

on another plane --

GREEN: Well, I mean he was brilliant.

GALANOS: He was brilliant. His conversation was simply

esoteric. I mean, I knew he was saying something

important but I couldn’t relate what he was saying in

every moment.

GREEN: He was also a troubled man. [07:00]

GALANOS: Oh, there is no doubt about it.

GREEN: And when you walked --

GALANOS: And it was pathetic really in a sense. Because

after all, listen, he actually was in the same

[light?] as Balenciaga he wanted [great of all times?]

GREEN: Absolutely.

GALANOS: Granted right at this moment if you take some of

those structured things there -- they’re totally --

they’re like dinosaurs. But they are still

magnificent and they are works of art.

GREEN: All you have to have is that Cecil Beaton

picture, you know the one picture of all those ladies

standing in the mirror and, you know, you recognize

what he accomplished. But he was extraordinarily

talented as (inaudible) person too.

GALANOS: He was. But you see, he simply wasn’t realistic.

He defeated his own genius. Whereas Balenciaga was a

genius and also businessman and also was part of this

world, so you know, big difference.

GREEN: Absolutely.

GALANOS: And, you know, I am assuming all of this but

having -- you know (overlapping dialogue; inaudible)

[08:00] I love my feel so I pursued and my knowledge

of all the designers of the past, I know very -- I

know their histories, I followed, I studied their

work, I can see what they are really all about. You

know.

GREEN: Give me some indication -- we rushed into all

this without doing it step by step and that’s fine. I

see you at ten years of age, sketching, influencing

your family, making decisions and I am sure there was

a certain amount of dogmatism at the time that “That’s

the way it should be.” And how to do it. High

school? College? What happened?

GALANOS: I went to high school, I graduated at 17.

GREEN: Were you a happy boy?

GALANOS: Yeah, I was -- as I say, I was pretty much a

loner because coming from a European family and my

parents were very strict and we weren’t allowed to mix

too much with everyone and my father wanted us to

[09:00] maintain a certain Greekness. So when you

live in a small town and you are the only Greek family

and you are not allowed to have friends, it’s a little

difficult. So I had to find other ways of, you know,

it was mostly a family unit.

GREEN: In what way did the ethnicity work, in other

words --

GALANOS: Well because my father wanted us to --

GREEN: Church?

GALANOS: -- no because we didn’t have a Greek church in

the town.

GREEN: I was going to say.

GALANOS: I went to an Episcopalian church. But my father

wanted us to understand what it was to be Greek, at

least in his mind, so we were instilled with the glory

of Greece and he was very proud of being Greek and so

am I. I can’t think of any other nationality I would

prefer to be than what I am. I am an American but of

heritage. If one has to have another country as a

background, [10:00] I think, certainly, being Greek is

fantastic historically. I can’t say too much of

today’s Greeks but the background is certainly

magnificent. So I was very proud of that and a lot of

it’s rubbed off. I mean, I love Greek culture and I

love Greek art and I think a lot of that has rubbed

off in my design and my proportions (inaudible), that

sort of thing. And I collect some Greek sculpture

when I can get ahold of something. But then my father

wanted us to know what it was to be Greek, so you had

to speak Greek at home when we were children. You had

to teach yourself to read and write (inaudible). It

was a little tough growing up. When you wanted to go

out and play with your schoolmates. We were allowed

to in a very sparing way.

GREEN: Involved in any sports at all?

GALANOS: Tennis.

GREEN: Tennis. [11:00] Chic.

GALANOS: So back in those days it was going to school in

the morning and coming home and then working in my

father’s restaurant. And he said that’s what all good

boys and good girls go and do, they work with the

family. That’s fine. So socially to be involved with

people we would go to large cities like Philadelphia

and New York where there is a Greek community. And as

you know about Greeks or any other ethnic groups have

their big functions and big balls and so forth and

that’s how you meet people and when you go to big

cities you find very interesting people. And so that

was our, let’s say, little glamour during our growing

up years. So anyways, I survived the growing up stage

and at 17, I said to my father, “Father, it’s time. I

am going to New York.” And my dream was to go to New

York and Paris. [12:00]

GREEN: No college.

GALANOS: Well, I thought about it but the priority was --

well I thought I wanted to go to design school. And

my father propositioned me. He wanted me to stay home

and work with him and he said, “Hey, look. If you

want to go to college, fine. Get an education, that

will build a restaurant chain.” He said, “You have

the education and I have the ability.” My father was

not an educated man in the sense I bec-- what I had.

So I said, “Papa, that’s not for me, I don’t want to

do that.” So he was a little disappointed because he

really wanted me to stay at home but I said, “No, I

have to go. If you don’t let me go, you’ll have a

miserable young man on your hand.” And I never would

have fought my father because I loved him, very good

man. But he knew that I had to go. [13:00] So he

accepted and he enrolled me in school. I saw in a

magazine a couple schools, in those days the one that

advertised the most was Traphagen. I had no idea, I

had no one to show me or teach me. My school had no

class of design. We just had our typical art class a

couple times a week and that was it. So everything I

had learned on my own. And when I was 17, I had

developed a certain style of drawing and sketching

that was fairly sophisticated. And I used to buy

magazines when I could afford -- 25 -- I think Vogue

and Harper’s were 25 cents in those days. And

wherever I had a chance to see something that had to

do with fashion, I just developed my own taste.

GREEN: Were you aware of European magazines at that

time?

GALANOS: Not so much because we didn’t have any there.

Those I saw later on when I came to New York and then

went to school. So then I enrolled [13:59] at Trap

Hagan and after a few weeks I was not very happy. I

felt that I was wasting time. That was all at the

tender age of 17. I said, what am I doing all this

for? I mean the things that they were teaching me, I

had already more or less developed on my own. So I

33 thought I knew all the answers. So what I did is I dropped out of most of the classes or whatever they had to offer. I did what I had to do simply because my father is paying tuition. I took the [draping?] class which was the one thing that probably my basis for whatever I know. I had a very excellent teacher, well there’s several good teachers at the school. One was in the draping department. And she took a liking to me and I found her fascinating. She used to talk to me all the time. She had some kind of background, she had worked with [Levan?] [15:00] people like that.

So just listening to her inspired me and gave me a great satisfaction and fascination to learn. And I developed a nice knack for [breaking?] and making muslin. And she saw that I had something so she encouraged me to do more. So that was really the most important thing I got out of school. And then after a year I decided not to continue. In the interim, while

I was out looking for a job, I used to sell sketches on 7th Avenue for two dollars apiece. Used to go up and down the elevators and try to earn a little bit of money to help my dad so he wouldn’t have to spend so much money on me. And by chance I -- one of the teachers at the school had the opportunity of hearing

of some [16:00] old (inaudible) class. Some very rich

business man that was looking for a young designer to

start a new venture and so she called me, I was out of

school at the time, and she said, “Why don’t you get

over to the Empire State building and see so and so.

They are looking for some things and maybe there is

something there.” And so I met this man and brought a

little portfolio of sketches and he took a liking to

me. He knew nothing about fashion. It seemed that he

had a very beautiful wife and she wanted to own the

business and she wanted to do something. They had

everything, a beautiful penthouse, some furs,

everything. He was an industrialist, they had cotton

mills and a lot of other things. Buy and sell

commodities. So to please his wife he was looking for

somebody --

GREEN: What was his name?

GALANOS: His name was Lawrence [Lessafoli?] and they had a

friend here in California who worked for [17:00] MGM.

In fact the head tailor who did all of Adrian’s suits.

So he had somehow got involved -- his wife, he and

this man and this was back in the ’50s, ’40s rather,

late ’40s. They decided they would go into business

and Mr. Leslie was going to finance Mr. Winters and

35 his wife (inaudible) MGM designers. He’d get to groom and grow with the business and actually get them on a small scale, you know, financially. So I went up there and either I sold myself, or as I say they took a liking to me. And then he called me back again, I met his wife, quite a beautiful lady. And so they gave me a contract. He signed me up for five years and then even (inaudible) about anything. I was just happy to have a job. [18:00] They gave me 75 dollars a week which was astronomical back then, it was back in 1943. So I thought, “My god, I’m really living high.” So they sent me out here and so I came out, sitting around in really nothing. Things for some reason just didn’t get going. But they didn’t say anything to me and I sat and sat and sat. I made sketches, we had a temporary office and that was about it. And then finally the thunderbolt struck. The couple were getting a divorce so that ended that kind of thing and so here I was, stranded in Hollywood.

And (inaudible) had tried to get a job in the studios.

I was always interested in -- my visual concept was to sign with the studios. But I was green and inexperienced. [19:00] I was unknown so it was very hard to break into the studios in those days. You had

36 to belong to a union first of all and secondly you really couldn’t break the doors down. You had to be known, you had to come from New York. So it was difficult. So I went back east and because this man had committed himself to me and I did have a contract, which frankly probably could have been broken easy enough. I didn’t hold it against him at all. I was just disappointed. So he said, “Jimmy, what can I do for you? Can I send you to college? Would you like to go to college?” And I thought about it and I said,

“Well,” I said, “I had thought about going before but

I had decided to go to art school instead.” So I said, “You know, let me think what to do.” And we just [20:00] stayed friends and I went home and a few days later I thought well, if he wants to do something for me, OK. My dream was to go to Paris. So I spoke with him, I said, “Look, would you sponsor me and send me to Paris?” I said, “If you do that, I would like to go to school there and pursue my profession.” I said, “I’ll pay you back if you loan me the money to do so.” He said, “Jimmy,” he says, “I’ll do anything you want. I’ll set up a scholarship for you, I’ll see that you’re set up with a family and I’ll send you money, as long as you want. Three or four years, do

37 as you want to do.” And that’s how I got to Europe.

And when I got there [21:00] I was supposed to enroll at the Beaux-Art Academy. I didn’t know anything about [Sean Mecindycall?}, I didn’t know anything. I had no one to guide me at all. So when I went there to start school in the fall, they said, “I think you are pursuing the wrong root. If you want to be a designer, this is not a place for designers. This is an academy of art. Painters and that sort of thing.”

I said, “No, I am not interested in that, I would like to go into design.” So then they suggested that I should go to the other place. I was very shy in those days so I got a little panicky. I wasn’t shy about going to Paris, the minute I walked into Paris, I felt

I was home. I just absolutely, you know, went out in the streets, I didn’t speak. But I was -- it was like

I had been there before. Because in my mind I had always wanted to be there. And I collect picture

(inaudible) Paris. [22:00] So even places I had never been, I’d seen photographs just like I’d been there.

It’s a strange sensation when you go to a -- today especially, when you see everything on television or you read, sometimes you go to a country and you say,

“Well, I’ve been here before.” It takes a little bit

of fun out of it because you know so much that these

days -- but anyway I decided -- I was living with this

very nice elderly couple that were retired and I asked

the -- retired lawyer -- I asked, said, “Would you

make some calls for me?” Because I didn’t know whether

everyone spoke English or not and I was a little shy

of picking up the telephone. I said, “Would you try

to make me an appointment with such and such?” And

they said, “Who would you like to call?” And I said,

“Well, number one would (inaudible) and number two was

Robert Piguet. Now it was very strange because Robert

Piguet was [23:00] -- at that time he was quite

famous. In the magazines I used to see his clothes

and they used to be the ones I like most of all, in

preference to [Bauman?] was a big star. I had met

Bauman once out here at California in that period I

was here in California. So I met him through a French

friend. And then there was -- who else was there at

the time? You had Bauman, you had -- there were a lot

of (inaudible) and people like (inaudible). But the

one, the really two people that I really wanted to see

was (inaudible) and Dior had just -- no he opened the

following year. And there was one or two others.

GREEN: Was [Desseh?] working at that time?

GALANOS: [Desseh?], yes. But he was still not as

acknowledged as he was [24:00] maybe five years later.

So they called, they called Bauman too and he wasn’t

in town at the time and there was one other designer,

I forget now which one. Anyway, (inaudible) I

couldn’t get into. Piguet accepted so I went and of

course he had a secretary who spoke English because he

didn’t speak English at all. So they sent me up to

his apartment room and he asked me, “What you want?” I

said, “I want to be a designer, I want to work in your

house.” And he said, “Why?” And I explained why and

he looked at my work and then he said, “I’m very sorry

but we don’t have anything.” I was disappointed. And

I said, “Would you keep me in mind?” [25:00] I said,

“I’ll do anything.” And he said, “If something should

come up, we’ll contact you.” Well, the next day I got

a call from Piguet and they said, “Please come and see

such and such person in his house with the business

administrator.” And so I went and he told me, he

said, “What do you want at this house?” And I said, “I

just want to draw, I’ll do anything. I just want to

learn whatever you can teach me and I’ll do anything.”

Whatever. He said, “Well, Mr. Piguet liked your work.

He liked your sketches. We don’t know exactly what to

40 do.” He said, [26:00] “Do you have equipment to work?” I said, “No, I came over as a student.” And he said, “Well, that presents a little bit of a problem.”

He said, “We have (inaudible) paying you if you don’t have any working [license?] it will be difficult.” I said, “I don’t care, I don’t want any money.” I said,

“All I want is to be allowed to work and to do whatever I can to learn.” So he said, “OK.” So that’s about it. I came in and it was at the tail end of the season and they were -- there had been weeks that were going to be in the new collection so they said come back at such and such a time and we will start working on the spring collection. And I did and the first thing we ended up needing -- Mark [Bolland?] was the designer then [27:00] and there was another young fellow who did the accessories and myself. So I was a novice. I sat outside of Mr. Piguet’s room in a little anteroom and then I was given an assignment.

He said, “I want you to make sketches.” And each one was given -- it was given the instructions of what to do. He said, “I want you to work around a theme.” At the time he said something, butterflies, I don’t know what. And I was supposed to sketch all kinds of ideas.

GREEN: (inaudible)

GALANOS: (inaudible). Everything is related to a

butterfly or a shape of butterfly or whatever. And

then of course before that we spent days looking at

fabrics. The fabric men would come there and we all

sat around a table and we were all asked to make our

[28:00] opinions of the fabrics, the (inaudible), so

forth and so on. He was very nice and like I said was

very shy in those days.

GREEN: How old was Piguet at that time?

GALANOS: I would say he was a man, at that time, in his

forties.

GREEN: I’ll stop you.

END OF AUDIO FILE